Running Away Is Easier Than To Stay
by cadkins08
Summary: S/Carter. After 'Hi, So...', S realizes that maybe Carter was the one and running away is keeping her from everything she's ever wanted...BETTER THAN THIS SUMMARY R
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay...I know this first chapter is short...I am sorry...but I was watching _'Hi, Society' _last night and I noticed Carter saying something about waking up and S being gone and I was like OMG I've got to write about that...**

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Being with Dan wasn't as she expected considering he had come to her rescue at the ball. Serena van der Woodsen knew it had something to do with the fact Carter Baizen had been her escort, thanks to her way to nosy grandmother. She couldn't stop thinking of him and Santorini as she spent the rest of the night with Dan. And when she finally went to sleep, it was Carter, not Dan, who she was dreaming about. So by the next morning, she wasn't surprised that it was Carter's not Dan's face on her phone's screen as it's persistent ringing woke her.

"Hello?" Serena asked, sleepily into the phone.

"I think we need to talk." Carter's voice was cold sounding…like he was mad.

"When?" She replied.

"Now. My room number is 1414 at the Waldorf-Astoria." Carter hung up before she could say anything.

Surprising even herself, Serena was in a taxi and at the hotel in ten minutes.

She only had to knock once.

Carter's face was grim and Serena was jerked in, barely getting out of the doorway by time Carter slammed it.

"What's wrong?" Serena's voice was a little unsteady considering Carter didn't appear to be in that great of a mood.

"Why?" He asked, "Why did you run?"

"Run?" Serena was confused now, though she should have been when she was woken up by Carter calling.

"You ran from me that night."

Serena understood, and her eyes shifted as she tried to think of something to say back to him.

"It was a one night stand. It wasn't meant to be forever." She said quietly.

"It was more than one night." Carter replied.

Serena crossed her arms, trying to look anywhere but into his eyes which was hard because some how she was backed against a wall and he was unbearably close.

"You've ran from me and I want to know why?" Carter's face was so close to her, that it didn't take much for his lips to take control of hers. He pulled away, "Is it because this is too much for you?"

Serena didn't answer. Her breathing was choppy and she had no idea what to do.

"Was it because you felt more than you intended to?" He took a hold of her wrists. "Was it because you were finally realizing that it wasn't Nate you were in love with?"

"Why does it matter?" The words weren't together, in fact it took her a minute to say it.

"Because I need to hear you say it." Carter replied using his hands around her wrists to jerk her to him. "I need to hear you say that you love me."

"What?"

"You ran from Nate because you loved him, just like you ran from me." Carter said firmly before his mouth descended to hers.

She pulled her mouth away, "I don't."

"Yes, you do. You fell in love with me like I fell in love with you that week we were together. And you know as well as I do that that week shouldn't have ended, but you got scared and ran." Carter replied.

"Carter, you don't understand-" She started the word heavy in her mouth, "Maybe there was _something _but I'm with Dan and I just can't-"

"Dan…I thought you'd be with Nate, that's why I held the grudge when I first came back and ruined Bass's weekend thing." Carter interjected.

"You did that on purpose?" Serena asked her mouth drooping.

"Of course." Carter shrugged, "I thought you went back to him. But you didn't."

"I forgot about him in Santorini." Serena whispered, wishing she could make herself lie.

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**So what did you think? Click that pretty OK button beside SUBMIT REVIEW and tell me.. and for those of you who liked WOW I CAN GET SEXUAL TOO...I am writing a second chapter to kind of tie up loose ends... **

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	2. Chapter 2

"What does this mean for us?" Carter asked, softly.

"There is no us." Serena answered sharply, "I'm with Dan, I love Dan." Though she wouldn't admit it or even think it, she was trying to convince herself more than him.

"No. You don't." Carter replied looking her in way that she couldn't look away, "If you loved Dan, you'd be on a plane out of here."

Serena pulled her arms out of his grasp, trying to put some distance between them.

"You don't know me, Carter." She said firmly, "You think that just because we were together for one week, you have control over me….but you don't."

"Whether you're ready to face the music or not, Serena van der Woodsen, you belong to me, because the only things you run from are the things that have you completely." He replied stepping closer to her as she stood in the living room of her suite.

"People don't belong to other people. And I've changed, Carter. I'm not the girl on the island anymore." She said, lightly as he walked closer to her.

His hand had moved slowly and softly to her shoulders.

"That is where you are wrong, you are the same girl only softer, more vulnerable." Carter was leaning in close to her again, "You've had me in your grasp since I saw you in that small local bar." He cut off his words and her thoughts as his mouth softly pressed against her's.

"You scare me." Serena confessed in a whisper so soft that he almost didn't hear her, when they pulled away.

"How?" He asked confused.

"Because I don't know what to do next." She whispered, her voice cracking.

"If you run, I promise I'll be on the next plane after you." Carter commented seriously.

"Why now? Why did you choose now to come back in my live? Why couldn't you have come when I left?" Serena's tone was border lining pleading as the words fell from her mouth, "Carter, you don't know half of what I feel and if you wanted it to works so badly why didn't you come sooner?"

"Would you have let me?" He asked making note of the wetness forming in her eyes.

"I waited in the small Santorini airport for five hours." She sighed, "I was hoping you'd come in, demanding to be on a plane that would take you where I went, but after five hours of just sitting there, I knew that you didn't want us to be serious."

"I was on the ferry." Carter replied, as one fat teardrop rolled down her cheek. "I didn't think you'd go to the local airport."

Serena's bottom lip was trembling as she tried to stay calm, "So you did come after me?"

"I tried." Carter said, "But I couldn't bring myself to get on the plane...I was hoping you'd come back. I mean you know what they say."

"Oh, Carter, you didn't love me."Serena said, her forehead crinkling.

"You don't know-" Carter started.

Serena's mouth dropped before she interjected, "You _didn't_ love me, right?"

**A/N: Okay...I totally apoligize that this was so SHORT...I want to choke myself for writing so little but I had to go with my sis to wash her car...more fun than it sounds and while I was out I discovered that I WOULD LOVE IF YOU GUYS REVIEWED...**

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	3. Chapter 3

"Serena...are you okay?" Dan's cheerful voice brought her away from her thoughts.

"What?" Serena looked at him confused, "Oh-yeah, I'm fine, just thinking."

More like cursing herself for going over to Carter's, she had been asking if he had loved her and then her phone had rang. It was Dan, of course, they had arranged the night before to have breakfast together in the morning.

_"Don't go." Carter pleaded._

_Looking into his eyes, Serena was tempted,"I've got to go."_

_"Okay." He didn't look as desperate as before, "But I want you to think and make a decision."_

_"Decision?" She asked, "Obama or Hillary?" She smiled softly._

_"No. Humphrey or Baizen." He answered, coldly._

_Her mouth dropped slightly, "You're kidding right?"_

_"No." _

After that, she was gone and Carter had managed to get inside her head.

"What about?" Dan was smiling, he didn't know that someone other than Nate was trying to win his girlfriend. And THANK GOD, he didn't know that this one might actually win.

"Us." She answered truthfully.

He raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

Serena swallowed, "What if I didn't tell you exactly what happened on Santorini?" She paused, since he looked at her in confusion, "I left one detail out-one person. Carter Baizen."

"Carter?" Dan asked, "What does Carter have to do with Santorini?"

"He was the reason I left Santorini and the reason I came back to the Upper East Side. We were together on the island, and it was starting to get deep-I started to feel something-and I ran...just like I did with Nate." She answered, it took alot to get the words out, but she let them go and hoped Dan wouldn't hate her.

"So-" Dan started, still trying to soak everything in, "Do you still _feel _something? Or is it over?"

Dan knew the answer, and he hated himself for knowing.

She took a minute, "I believe that I still feel something."

Dan nodded, "Well, when this Carter breaks you heart after going back to his natural rich playboy ways, will you give me a call?"

Serena smiled a small, sweet, sad smile that matched Dan's, "The very next second."

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Carter was just sitting there...staring off into space, thinking about Serena van der Woodsen. Carter was one of those New Age people who believed in the power of postive thought, but he never thought that minutes after thinking about Serena would she be on his doorstep wearing her classic confused pout.

"Are you going to be commited?" She asked after just standing there, looking at him. "Will you actually try to make this work? Or are you just going to leave me when you meet someone better?"

His face broke into a smile, "Serena, you can't tell me that you believe there is someone better than you on this Earth?"

"You're just saying that." Serena laughed, rolling her eyes, as he pulled her into his arms and into the suite.

"Now, tell me before I go insane." He said each word between light pecks on her mouth.

She pulled her head back, "I'm not 100 sure yet, so I can't say that right now."

Carter nodded, "I guess you're worth the wait. But am I not aloud to tell you?"

She looked confused, lets hope she's not making a habit..."Tell me what?"

"That, Serena van der Woodsen, ever since I saw you at that bar and since I held you in my arms that night, I've been completely in love with you." Carter replied before making a passionate assult on her mouth.

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A New Couple For The UES

**Finally S has gotten rid of Lonely Boy, by trading up...I must say to the other CB not the one with our Queen but the other more cultured one. Let us hope that with Lonely Boy gone, Little J will go the same way...**

**XOXO **

**Gossip Girl**

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**A/N: Hey guys...thanks for reviewing thats what fuels my writing because I post at night then in computer class I check my reviews...SORRY this was short but to the point...**

**READ AND REVIEW PLEASE**


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